Thursday, 21 April 2011

Just sweet enough: Vanilla Bean Cake

There's a magical place back in my hometown of San Francisco. There's wine for two dollars, amazing pre-made salads, and scrumptious frozen foods. But the best thing Trader Joe's sells are the sweeties: rich, indulgent, massive bars of chocolate, salty-sweet mini peanut butter cups, and a boxed vanilla cake mix that's to die for.

Yup, I said it. A boxed mix that's to die for. It's fragrant and moist and vanilla-y without being too sweet, and it's one of the reasons I so rarely bake when I'm home– why tamper with something so delicious and easy?

But do I sit around and mope? No (yes, sometimes). Instead, when I found myself craving TJ's vanilla cake last weekend, I decided to give it a go on my own.

I scanned a bunch of random recipes from the internet to get the proportions right, then I cut out the raising agents (because otherwise I'd never use my self-raising flour) and swapped the vanilla for vanilla beans, and cut the sugar a bit. And the result was actually pretty darned close!

This cake is moist but light, sweet but not too sweet, and with a subtly vanilla scent that hints of lazy days in hammocks with trashy novels (well, I did use Tahitian vanilla). The only thing I'd change is the intensity of the vanilla flavor; my pods were kind of dried out, and I suspect that's why it wasn't super intense. But it was a pretty good start, even if I do say so myself.

Vanilla Bean Cake:

Preheat oven to 350F/175C. Grease a 9x13 pan, or two 9-in round pans.

In a small bowl, combine and set aside:

1 c low fat milk

1 vanilla bean, halved and scraped

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream until fluffy:

3/4 c (170g) unsalted butter, softened

2 c sugar (I swapped out 1/4 c for vanilla sugar, but I realize not everyone has that lying around, although it's easy to make)

I'm in London, but I can definitely give you tips on where to eat in SF! I'm not sure how much I've said on the blog, but my all-time top 5 restaurants are probably The House, Slanted Door, Mama's (for brunch), Ristorante Ideale, and Wayo Sushi. That should give you a range of cuisines/price points in the city.

If you have a chance you should definitely head up to Napa, even for the day. The food there is amazing. Top five: Go Fish, Redd, Ad Hoc (there's a post on the blog), Cook, and C Casa.